THE GARDEN IN WINTER 



When the last of the Michaelmas daisies and of the 

 out-door chrysanthemums have cast their blooms, many 

 gardeners are apt to think that the interest and beauty 

 of the garden are over, and that for three months there 

 is nothing to be done but to dig and enrich the soil, and 

 to wait patiently for the onset of spring. This is a 

 narrow and an ill-informed view, for, though through 

 the months of winter we cannot hope to see many or 

 gaudy flowers, we may yet have our gardens bright 

 and interesting with evergrey and evergreen shrubs and 

 herbs, with the delightfully-coloured barks of willows, 

 dog-woods and other trees, and, not less interesting, 

 with the often beautiful stems of the last season's 

 growth of herbaceous plants, usually sacrificed to the 

 tidying spirit of those who would tidy the floor of 

 heaven itself. Moreover, even in winter, flowers of no 

 mean rank may be had in the open borders of English 

 gardens. 



The Christmas and Lenten Roses or Hellebores alone 

 can be so used as to make a border interesting during 

 the whole of the winter months, for not only do they 

 all possess handsome foliage, but their flowers also are 

 very beautiful and varied in colour. They are easy of 

 culture, liking a deep, fairly stiff" and rich, though well- 

 drained, soil, and thriving best in dense shade, under 

 trees or on the north side of a hedge or wall. The 

 Hellebores are impatient of disturbance and meddlesome- 

 ness. The flowers, coming as they do in the rainy 

 season, should be saved from being soiled with splashes 



